A survey by MBLM, which describes itself as “the brand intimacy agency,” found Miller led all beverage alcohol brands in terms on “intimacy” – how they connect emotionally with consumers. Miller’s score was 31.4, followed by Budweiser at 23.2, and Coors at 21.8.
The authors believe measuredly brand “intimacy” is important because “people trust one another more than they trust a corporation. Additionally, brands are proliferating, saturating our attention, increasing confusion, and often cannibalizing each other.” They define brand intimacy as “an essential relationship between a person and a brand that transcends purchase, usage and loyalty.”
Authors of the report compared Miller to Heineken, and concluded Miller is currently the more intimate brand compared to Heineken. Its higher Quotient score reflects more intimate customers (27% versus Heineken’s 22%). It also has more customers in fusing (4 compared to 0 for Heineken) and bonding, while the brands are largely equal in terms of sharing.
Miller is also stronger across all six archetypes, including indulgence, the category-dominant archetype. This suggests Heineken’s brand associations are less defined to its users. Additionally, 12% of Miller’s customers are willing to pay 20% more for its products, compared to 4% for Heineken.
Lastly, Miller customers tend to use the product more; Miller performs much higher on the ritual archetype. Our study finds 12.2% of Miller customers use the product daily and 31.1% use it weekly. For Heineken, 8.6 percent of customers drink the product daily, and 25.2 percent weekly.